1/04/2006

The Power of Productivity. William W. Lewis

The Power of Productivity. William W. Lewis. 2004. ISBN 0226476766. So you have read Freakonomics and The World is Flat. But you want something with more meat in it to explain what is really going on in Japan, Brazil, Africa, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, China, India and so on. Just how important to our GDP is the high tech industry and wither goes the West? How could we combat the rising terrorism and what is up with the riots in France? What does this mean to Canada? Well this is the book for you.

Lewis headed up the Mckinsey Global Institute which studied individual country economies for twenty years through the lens of business sectors and rated their comparative labor productivity. The results are eye opening and make much of recent events understandable. Did you know that you still can not get a mortgage in Brazil or Russia? That in Japan there are only mortgages for new homes and they have no standards for building houses? That in India most land title is in dispute? That large retailers like Wal Mart can not make a profit in Russia, because their competitors do not pay their electricity and tax bills? Or that India "loses" almost 30% of its electrical power through theft? There is lots more . A great read and one I guarantee you will not put down. All the years of background reports are free downloads at www.mckinsey.com (Global Institute section)

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